Melbourne historic church could fetch $5.5m
Wealthy businessman and land owner James Munro laid the heritage-listed Uniting Church's foundation stone in 1886.
Mr Munro, who served as Victorian Premier from 1880-1882, purchased the land at 86B Kooyong Rd for the house of worship to be built upon.
RELATED: Catholic Church selling Melbourne terraces opposite St Patrick's
Just heavenly: Holy listings boom across Vic as churches sell up
Presbyterian Church lists $3m landmark Alma and Barkly church
Designed by the Melbourne architecture firm Terry & Oakden, the Early English Gothic-style church features a nave, transept, apsis, organ, tower and spire, and seven car spaces.
The 1438sq m site is also home to an interconnected building that has been converted to an office and is leased out on a short-term basis to a commercial tenant.
CVA Property Consultants' managing director Ian Angelico and director Daniel Philip have the General Residential zoned-listing.
'The church is definitely a landmark,' Mr Angelico.
'The architecture is just magnificent, the stained glass windows are absolutely stunning.'
He is expecting potential buyers to include community and religious groups, developers and owner-occupiers.
'There is scope to develop because of the very high ceilings, that would be subject to planning approval and the building would have to remain intact because of its heritage status,' Mr Angelico said.
'It could also possibly become an auction house or something similar.'
Stonnington Council heritage documents state that the church is of historical significance for reasons including its association with Mr Munro.
Alongside his political career and many business interests, he established several coffee palaces – accommodation and dining venues that did not serve alcohol – in locations including Melbourne, Geelong and Broken Hill in the 1800s.
He was a partner in a company that bought Spring St's Grand Hotel, later Hotel Windsor, and turned it into a coffee palace.
The church is 220m from Armadale train station and on the corner of High St's shopping strip.
A post on the church's website stated that 'the hard decision to close' was made due the congregation's declining numbers and finances needed to support a minister and other expenses across the next five years.
A church spokesperson said their last service was held in May, with congregation members joining other nearby places of worship including the Toorak Uniting Church.
The Armadale site has roots going back to 1876 with the establishment of a Sunday school by the then-Toorak Presbyterian Church.
Sign up to the Herald Sun Weekly Real Estate Update. Click here to get the latest Victorian property market news delivered direct to your inbox.
MORE: Inner city site with $150m tower proposal sells
Barber in Melbourne's west says farewell after six decades
Mass bird deaths outside Melbourne shopping hub
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sydney Morning Herald
9 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Controversial $39m development approved next to St Mary's Cathedral
A controversial plan for a $39 million office building including a bookshop and cafe next to St Mary's Cathedral has been approved by a NSW court after an earlier proposal was knocked back by the City of Sydney Council. In a decision this month, the Land and Environment Court granted development consent to the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney for the demolition of an existing car park and the construction of the new chancery building in the heritage-listed cathedral precinct opposite Hyde Park. The new building will be located on St Mary's Road between the cathedral and a former school building, which are listed together as items of state heritage significance. The area forms part of the larger Governors' Domain and Civic Precinct that is covered by separate national heritage protections. The original development proposal, refused by the council in August last year, was for a more imposing six-storey building, including four storeys visible from the street. It had raised the ire of some parishioners, one of whom decried the plan in a submission to the council as an 'act of vandalism' that 'destroys the formal grandeur of the present cathedral and its precincts'. The amended proposal, approved by the court after the Archdiocese filed an appeal, has a lower impact, with two principal storeys above ground and a less obtrusive third storey. It will include offices, a bookshop, a cafe and community meeting rooms. 'St Mary's Cathedral is the oldest Catholic church in Australia, and the former school building on the site, variously known as Chapter Hall or Chapter House, is the oldest building in the St Mary's precinct and possibly the oldest intact Catholic school building in Australia,' Commissioner Timothy Horton said in his decision. The commissioner said the cathedral 'has been a part of the Sydney skyline in some form for more than a century, and a Catholic Church has been a feature of its site since a church of that name was first dedicated' in 1836.
The Age
9 hours ago
- The Age
Controversial $39m development approved next to St Mary's Cathedral
A controversial plan for a $39 million office building including a bookshop and cafe next to St Mary's Cathedral has been approved by a NSW court after an earlier proposal was knocked back by the City of Sydney Council. In a decision this month, the Land and Environment Court granted development consent to the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney for the demolition of an existing car park and the construction of the new chancery building in the heritage-listed cathedral precinct opposite Hyde Park. The new building will be located on St Mary's Road between the cathedral and a former school building, which are listed together as items of state heritage significance. The area forms part of the larger Governors' Domain and Civic Precinct that is covered by separate national heritage protections. The original development proposal, refused by the council in August last year, was for a more imposing six-storey building, including four storeys visible from the street. It had raised the ire of some parishioners, one of whom decried the plan in a submission to the council as an 'act of vandalism' that 'destroys the formal grandeur of the present cathedral and its precincts'. The amended proposal, approved by the court after the Archdiocese filed an appeal, has a lower impact, with two principal storeys above ground and a less obtrusive third storey. It will include offices, a bookshop, a cafe and community meeting rooms. 'St Mary's Cathedral is the oldest Catholic church in Australia, and the former school building on the site, variously known as Chapter Hall or Chapter House, is the oldest building in the St Mary's precinct and possibly the oldest intact Catholic school building in Australia,' Commissioner Timothy Horton said in his decision. The commissioner said the cathedral 'has been a part of the Sydney skyline in some form for more than a century, and a Catholic Church has been a feature of its site since a church of that name was first dedicated' in 1836.
AU Financial Review
9 hours ago
- AU Financial Review
WFH culture in Victoria ‘took hold from COVID lockdowns'
Victoria's long periods of COVID lockdowns created a culture of working from home that is not as entrenched in other parts of the country, Western Australia's premier said yesterday as other state leaders distanced themselves from Jacinta Allan's plans to legislate a right to hybrid work. Employers have criticised the Allan government's promise to enshrine remote working arrangements into Victorian law as productivity-sapping and anti-business, and all other mainland states on Tuesday said they had no plans to follow suit.
